Students to receive hands-on experience; UH community to receive convenient service-oriented and cost effective travel assistance

HONOLULU — The largest retail travel agency in Hawai'i, Regal Travel, will open an office at Kapiʻolani Community College (KCC) today to provide hospitality and tourism students with first hand experience in operating a travel agency. The agency will be fully operational and specialize in serving the travel needs of students, faculty, and staff from all 10 University of Hawai'i campuses.

"Regal Travel has the confidence in our students and the commitment to our college and university system to establish an agency right on our campus," said KCC Chancellor John Morton. "I encourage faculty, staff, and students from every campus to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity to make their next travel plans right on campus — it benefits everyone."

Regal Travel‘s on-campus agency will provide the UH community with all travel-related services including airline reservations and ticketing, special tour packages, hotel accommodations, car rentals, and cruise line reservations. In addition, the Regal Travel on-campus agency will provide a unique educational component not offered at other schools.

"KCC is proud to partner with Regal Travel to offer our students the most advanced training and experience available in an environment that will benefit the entire UH system," said KCC Hospitality and Tourism Department Chair Ron Umehira. "By having an on-campus travel agency we can provide our students with outstanding on-the-job training — a component that sets our program apart from others and makes our students more appealing to future employers."

Umehira went on to add that "In addition to internship possibilities on the campus and at Regal Travel's other branches, students will also be exposed to numerous other training opportunities including ones offered by Norwegian Cruise Lines."

Students working at the Regal Travel on-campus travel agency will be trained on Apollo, the live airline reservation system used by United Airlines. The live system will be installed on 25 computer terminals in KCC‘s travel laboratory adjoining the agency.

"Regal Travel is dedicated to educating and training our future hospitality and tourism students as well as meeting the university‘s needs in providing cost-effective convenient travel planning," said Regal Travel On-Campus Branch Manager Mary Jane Smith.

Smith, who has over 18 years of travel experience, and other support staff will manage the on-campus travel agency. She and her staff will conduct informational sessions to faculty, staff, and students system-wide to present all of their travel services. Regal Travel at KCC will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday except on federal holidays. For more information, please contact Regal Travel at 734-9720.